Save a Doomed Meeting

We’ve all been in a meeting that was headed for a cliff, feeling powerless to forestall disaster. Perhaps the team leader had made up his mind, or the clique coalesced around a point of view, or maybe it was just the resident loudmouth who wouldn’t stop venting.

What can you do in those circumstances? Is there any way to turn around the meeting short of shouting “fire!” and making everyone evacuate the building? With a little forethought and some judicious use of non-verbal jujitsu, even an employee with a humble position in the hierarchy can help prevent bureaucratic Armageddon. Here are three ways to keep sanity in fashion.

1. Kill agreement before it rears its ugly head. You have to be on the lookout for a steamrolling sense of agreement in a meeting. Here, it’s helpful to understand a little about group dynamics. It’s fashionable to decry groupthink and it’s supposed to be the cause of most bad ideas, but in fact groupthink is necessary to get a team to work together enthusiastically for a common goal.

The problem is not groupthink; the problem is bad inputs. Groupthink may have given us Enron and Worldcom, but it also put men on the moon. It’s at the input stage that you have to stay alert, and be ready to head off the tendency to move toward a final decision with a lousy set of alternatives.

It’s much easier to kill enthusiasm for a bad idea while it’s still in its infancy. Once the key influencers in a group start to decide in favor of an option, it gets harder and harder for everyone to cease and desist. So if you don’t want bad ideas to become the next company mission, you need to be prepared to declare, “I’m not sure that any of the ideas on the table will get us to where we need to go,” early in the game. Very early.

I’m not suggesting breaking the rules of true brainstorming. But most so-called brainstorming sessions are really only pseudo-sessions without enough time spent on getting a huge number of ideas in play so that one or more of them will actually be good enough.

Of course, you’ll probably be asked to suggest better ideas yourself. In that case, say, “I think we need to go deeper. Let’s get the genius of the whole group involved and take this to another level.” Few groups can resist that invitation.

2. Focus your emotions, get really excited, and challenge the group with a new emotional pitch. Few groups can resist charisma. Charisma is not a divine gift; it is a non-verbal discipline. It is focused emotion. Most of us have a great deal on our minds, and our bodies telegraph that mixed message. It’s not charismatic. Actors, politicians, and business leaders have learned that if you focus your emotion on one strong feeling, your body language will line up behind that emotion and no one will be able to take their eyes off you.

If you see things going awry in your team meeting, spend a couple of minutes going to a memory of when you experienced the strong emotion that you want to call up. What did it feel, smell, taste, look, and sound like? Remember the occasion and the feeling as specifically as you can. With some practice, you’ll be able to conjure up a strong feeling, and then all eyes will be on you as soon as you start to express it.

What the feeling is will depend on the moment. If it’s anger, don’t direct it at the group, but rather at some external threat.

3. Use the authoritative arc to change the flow of the conversation. If your voice isn’t being heard in a meeting, it’s probably because you lack authority. Some authority is bestowed by the group, but it first is asserted by the leader. Use the authoritative arc to give your voice authority rather than ceding to others.

How does the authoritative arc work? It has to do with the pitch of your voice, and the phrasing. If you begin a phrase or sentence at your normal resting pitch, then allow the pitch to rise to show energy and passion, then you need to end the phrase by bringing your pitch back down to the same pitch as you started or lower. Many people in teams — especially teams that strive for collegiality &#8212 tend to let their voices rise at the ends of phrases, as if they were asking questions. This pitch profile has no authority at all. Indeed, your teammates will hear it as if you’re seeking approval from the rest of the group. So instead let your voice drop in pitch &#8212 but not in energy &#8212 at the end of your phrases and sentences.

If you’re having trouble figuring this one out, listen to Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. He uses the authoritative arc with virtually every phrase — and it was the most memorable speech of the 20th century. Learn from the master.

These three strategies won’t necessarily stop every loony idea from catching fire amongst your teammates, but it will help you kill your fair share. Go ahead, take charge.